Exposing right-wing lies and obfuscation against the Labour party

It’s Rocky Time! The business sector’s orchestrated attack on Labour fails to land a knockout punch

Pushed back against the ropes, Ed Miliband and Labour came up with some strong counter-punches to make it through another gruelling round of dirty fighting from Tory election strategists and their media backers.

The mainstream media went into full throttle beat-down mode when Boots billionaire, Stefano Pessina, warned of “catastrophic consequences” if the British electorate votes for Ed and Labour in the upcoming general election. (For the record, we had not previously heard of Mr Pessina, much less asked for his opinion.)

Labour hit back with a one-two: First, by acquainting us with Mr Pessina (who it turns out is a tax-dodging exile living in Monaco); and second, by using the opportunity to promote some of its policies to clean up the tax practices of big business and secure a fairer deal for working people. One is that a Labour government would give UK overseas territories six months to compile a public register of offshore companies or be put on a “tax havens” list, potentially repatriating billions of pounds.

By this past weekend things had started to shift; the (relatively) more liberal media began shining a light on Tory malfeasance and asking uncomfortable questions. As the BBC online review of The Papers put it, “From Labour in difficulties to a potential Tory embarrassment” reporting on The Sunday Times story about an investigation into tax avoidance by the Tory Solicitor-General, Robert Buckland.

The Guardian broke the news of accounting scams at HSBC and The Sunday Mirror, meanwhile, condemned the “fat cat lives” of those on the boards of big accountancy firms, and reported that Cameron had “no regrets” about appointing the HSBC chief to a top government post offering advice on minimising tax to wealthy clients.

Maybe they should ask instead how come Ed is still standing, given the coordinated Tory/Crosby/media attacks in which everything plus three kitchen sinks has been thrown at him for the past four years, non-stop.

Ed’s leadership has been marked by his ability to choose the right fight, hold his corner and roll with the punches. The Labour Party, the unions and the left in general must stand firm with him to win GE2015 and rid the country of the Tory scum and their LibDem enablers.

Post election is when we hold his feet to the fire to ensure he delivers a government that works for the majority.